Monday, June 15, 2009

All hopes of escaping unnoticed by the dragon are dashed when Meatwad fails to keep his footing on the slippery ledge. The dragon rises clumsily from the lake, prepared to kill the mortals for their impertinence, when Wahleed begs to parley with the creature. Confident of its superiority, the dragon agrees to listen until it gets bored. Wahleed offers to be of service to the creature, but the beast is uninterested. All it wants is to be left alone, free of interfering mortals and the living dead that harrass him. Wahleed offers to rid the beasts of the undead in exchange for thier lives. Not really believing the mortals will succeed in (or even attempt) this, the dragon allows them to leave, on the understanding that Meatwad never return to its lair.

The adventurers explore the remainder of the tunnels, noticing that these appear to be man-made, and more recent that the burial chambers they entered earlier. Following the sound of activity from within the tunnels, the group finds a large group of strange creatures - Shaft Wights, the lost souls of miners that have died in cave-ins. The party dispatches the first group they encounter only after a difficult fight that leaves most of them horribly wounded. As they search the chamber where the Shaft Wights were mining, they find that a vein of platinum has been uncovered, and that the creatures were mining it for some unknown purpose.

Loading up what ore could be found, the party returns to the town of Borderville to recover from their wounds and resupply. Upon their arrival, they discover that a party of adventurers had started a violent fight in the town and were executed. The captian of the East Gate informs them that new laws against violence have been inacted, making armed combat within town punishable by death.

The adventurers exchange their ore for spendable silver at the moneychanger's establishment, and allow the majority of it to be banked there. The moneychanger mentions that items possesed by the recently executed criminals will be put up for sale at the end of the week. Interested in the items, the party bribes the moneychanger into letting them see the merchandise early. After making a note of the items that interest them (including two braces of silver daggers and four half-elven slaves), the party spends thier first night in town at the Comeback Inn.